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Sky News
21 minutes ago
- Sky News
Donald Trump wades into Sydney Sweeney ad debate
Donald Trump has waded into the debate surrounding Sydney Sweeney's jeans ad. The American Eagle ad, which features the 27-year-old actress, who starred in the HBO series Euphoria and White Lotus, has the tagline "Sydney Sweeney has great jeans". It has sparked a debate in the US over race and Western beauty standards. In a since-corrected Truth Social post, the US president initially misspelt Sweeney's first name, saying: "It's for American Eagle, and the jeans are 'flying of the shelves.' Go get 'em Sidney." Most of the criticism has centred on videos using the word "genes" instead of "jeans", with one in which Sweeney says: "Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair colour, personality and even eye colour. My jeans are blue." Critics argued the play on words potentially promotes eugenics, a discredited theory that believed humanity could be improved through the selective breeding of certain traits. But others have defended the ad, saying the critics are reading too much into its message. The video appeared on American Eagle's Facebook page and other social media channels, but is not part of the ad campaign. In a statement on Instagram on Friday, American Eagle Outfitters said the campaign "is and always was about the jeans. Her jeans. Her story. We'll continue to celebrate how everyone wears their AE jeans with confidence, their way. Great jeans look good on everyone." Stocks in American Eagle Outfitters jumped by 23.3% after Mr Trump's intervention. Trump knows all publicity is good publicity US correspondent @marthakelner They say all publicity is good publicity, and Sydney Sweeney's American Eagle ad is certainly notching up the column inches, especially now Donald Trump has intervened. The US president must have been breathlessly excited when he found out Sweeney was a registered Republican because he wrote a Truth Social post in support of her before deleting it twice and reposting three times to correct various spelling and grammatical errors. He clearly could not wait to get involved in the discourse. "Sydney Sweeney, a registered Republican, has the HOTTEST ad out there,' he wrote. "Go get 'em Sydney!" In any other era, the president weighing in so heavily on one side of a pop culture issue would've been unusual. But the current president knows people are talking about the ad around their dinner tables and at parties right now. By injecting himself into the discussion, they will now be talking about him too. In his Truth Social post, which he reposted three times to fix various typos, Mr Trump compared the ad with "woke" ones "on the other side of the ledger" - as he criticised other companies, as well as hitting out at Taylor Swift. "The tide has seriously turned - Being WOKE is for losers, being Republican is what you want to be," he wrote.
The Guardian
38 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Speaker Mike Johnson visits occupied West Bank to support Israeli settlers
Mike Johnson became the highest ranked US official to visit the occupied West Bank on Monday, the Republican House speaker drawing measures of praise and condemnation for his trip in support of Israeli settlements amid a worsening starvation crisis in Gaza. The excursion followed Johnson's arrival in Israel on Sunday on an unannounced visit with other Republican lawmakers, and his meeting with Israeli defense minister Israel Katz and foreign minister Gideon Saar. Johnson's visit to the West Bank is the highest profile by a senior US political figure since then secretary of state Mike Pompeo went to Psogat in November 2020 during the final months of Donald Trump's first presidency. It is a private trip hosted by a pro-Israel advocacy group, an Axios report said, and not an official congressional delegation. The outlet said Johnson traveled with fellow Republican representatives Michael McCaul, Nathaniel Moran and Michael Cloud of Texas, and Claudia Tenney of New York. Johnson told Israeli settlers on Monday that Israel was the 'rightful owner' of the contested Palestinian territory, according to a report published on the pro-Palestinian website Common Dreams, and separately, Marc Zell, chair of Republicans Overseas Israel. Common Dreams quoted Johnson as saying that 'the mountains of Judea and Samaria are the rightful property of the Jewish people' and that the territory was at 'the front line of the state of Israel, and must remain an integral part of it'. 'Even if the world thinks otherwise, we stand with you,' he reportedly added, an apparent reference to recent proclamations by France and the UK that they would recognize a Palestinian state if Israel did not commit to a ceasefire in Gaza. His visit was immediately condemned by the Palestinian foreign ministry, which issued a statement calling Israel's annexation of the West Bank a 'blatant violation of international law'. Johnson's stance in support of the settlers, it said, 'undermines Arab and American efforts to stop the war and [the] cycle of violence, while flagrantly contradicting the declared US position on settlements and settler violence'. According to a post on X by Zell, Johnson also said the US should use the 250th anniversary of its independence next year 'to remind the American people of its Judeo-Christian foundations that were formed here in the land of Israel'. Johnson's trip comes as pressure builds on Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the growing hunger crisis in Gaza, which some critics have called a genocide orchestrated by Israel. It also comes shortly after a Palestinian American from Florida was killed in the West Bank by Israeli settlers while visiting family. The Trump-appointed ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, called the killing a 'terrorist attack'. Johnson is expected to meet Netanyahu before returning to the US on Sunday.
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
‘It'll be carnage': why Sydney Sweeney's risky political moment may backfire
It is one of the questionable perks of Donald Trump's 'wall of sound' approach to communication that the slightly icky moment when the world of Maga and one of Hollywood's hottest young stars connected was broadcast live and uncut. As the US president boarded Air Force One, a reporter asked whether he had any thoughts on Sydney Sweeney, a 'very hot actress right now', being a registered Republican. Of course he did. 'She's a registered Republican? Ooh, now I love her ad. Is that right? Is Sydney Sweeney … You'd be surprised at how many people are Republicans. That's what I wouldn't have known. But I'm glad you told me that. If Sydney Sweeney is a registered Republican, I think her ad is fantastic.' Sweeney, for the uninitiated, and there can't be many, first gained prominence for her roles in HBO's Euphoria and The White Lotus and more recently co-starred in the thriller Echo Valley with Julianne Moore. It has, however, been the 27-year-old's 'more is best' approach to commercial tie-ups and a tendency for the social media algorithms to promote her that has made the actor inescapable. She is everywhere, smiling with a dab of rejuvenating cream on her face, straining to inject cool into clog-shaped black loafers or taking selfies with a dog to promote Samsung flip phones. She can even be found in your bath tub thanks to a collaboration with a men's personal care company to create a soap called Sydney's Bathwater Bliss that contains a small amount of the actual water in which she has washed. Her latest advertising campaign has led her into more dangerous waters. 'Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair colour, personality, and even eye colour,' she purrs in an advert for American Eagle denims. 'My genes are blue,' she says as the camera lingers on her eyes. The strap line: Sydney Sweeney has great jeans. The whiff of controversy was inevitably picked up with claims that the ad was elevating the white, blond and blue eyed. One TikTok reaction video that received hundreds of thousands of likes commented 'it's literally giving … Nazi propaganda'. JD Vance, never one to miss such a moment, criticised the unhinged Dems and hailed an 'all-American beautiful woman'. 'So much of the Democrats is oriented around hostility to basic American life,' he added. Then, amid the extra scrutiny of the woman behind the storm, it emerged that Sweeney had registered as a Republican voter in Florida a few months before Trump won his second US presidency. As Trump's delight illustrated, the benefit to the president is clear, said David Cracknell, a former political editor of Rupert Murdoch's Sunday Times who now runs his own PR company. There is a long history of politicians chasing the celebrity endorsement, with JFK among the earliest to spot the benefits of having Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr on his side. Last summer, Harvard University's Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation published research that suggested celebrity voices could be 'incredibly powerful' in promoting civic engagement and altering polling numbers. Online voter registration and poll worker volunteer rates were found to increase when a celebrity promoted them. Celebrity endorsements from the likes of Taylor Swift and Oprah Winfrey did not help Kamala Harris's cause at the last election but the tacit endorsement of a young woman could be particularly helpful at a time when Trump is under pressure over his past relationship with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. However, Cracknell said the upside for the celebrity was far less clear. 'It usually does end in tears when any celebrity gets involved in politics, just look at Kanye West and how his endorsement for Trump was mixed up with his reputational downfall,' said Cracknell. 'Then he said later that he felt used by Trump. More fool you for getting involved because the politicians are much better at manipulating the media, they are doing it on a second by second basis, Trump literally.' Mark Borkowski, whose PR clients have included Michael Jackson, Joan Rivers and Van Morrison, said avoiding political entanglements, particularly in the infancy of a career when hopefuls rely on goodwill from all sides, was vital. When Taylor Swift praised two Democratic candidates in her home state of Tennessee back in 2018 it led to a fearsome backlash but she stuck to her guns, going on to back Joe Biden and Kamala Harris for president. It can hardly be said that her career has suffered but Swift was established, said Borkowski, as were other celebrities, such as John Wayne and Charlton Heston who threw themselves into political causes, the former with the Republican party and the latter the civil rights movement and then the National Rifle Association. 'I am fascinated by Sydney Sweeney,' Borkowski said. 'She's become the sort of delicious siren of the gen Z media. She has got all the echoes of Jayne Mansfield or Marilyn Monroe, but she's totally overpromoted. 'She's clickbait and it's the worst idea to declare a political affiliation, especially in the inferno that is American discourse. It's a massive PR risk because she hasn't made it yet. She is not Margot Robbie, she does not have Oscars behind her.' As if to illustrate the danger for celebrities who dip a toe in American politics, Trump later doubled down on his Truth Social platform to praise Sweeney's instincts and castigate Swift. He said: 'Ever since I alerted the world as to what she was by saying on TRUTH that I can't stand her (HATE!) She was booed out of the Super Bowl and became NO LONGER HOT. 'The tide has seriously turned – Being WOKE is for losers, being Republican is what you want to be. Thank you for your attention to this matter!' Sweeney is yet to comment on her political sympathies but plenty of others, beyond Trump, will have a say, said Borkowski. 'Silence in politics is really important now because if you don't, you're going to be exposed by the full weight of the opposition on social media,' he said. 'It'll be carnage. She's a bombshell, but she's not box office yet.'
